VBA Subroutine Does Not Retain Bookmarks in Word

Question

I generated the VBA code below in order to populate a large Word template document from Excel. My goal is to update a bookmark and then the associated cross references to that bookmark to update as well while the template controls different styles of the same text.

What I'm encountering is that the bookmark is just replaced with text, the bookmark itself disappears, and therefore the cross references do not update through the document. My working knowledge of VBA in Excel is limited.

Sub exportToWord()
    Dim WordApp As Word.Application
    Dim doc As Word.Document
    Dim expoDoc As Word.Document
    Dim rng_project_name As Word.Range
    Dim docPath As String, expoPath As String
    Dim bookmark As Word.bookmark
    
    On Error Resume Next ' Enable error handling
    
    ' Specify the output path for the Word document
    expoPath = Range("outputPath").Value & Range("project_name").Value & ".docx"

    ' Create a new instance of Word Application
    Set WordApp = New Word.Application
    If WordApp Is Nothing Then
        MsgBox "Word is not installed or an error occurred."
        Exit Sub
    End If
    WordApp.Visible = False

    ' Open the existing Word document
    Set doc = WordApp.Documents.Open([wordPath].Text)
    If doc Is Nothing Then
        MsgBox "The specified document could not be opened."
        WordApp.Quit
        Set WordApp = Nothing
        Exit Sub
    End If

    ' Update all bookmarks in the document
    For Each bookmark In doc.Bookmarks
        If Not bookmark.Range Is Nothing Then
            If bookmark.Name = "project_name" Then
                bookmark.Range.Text = Range("project_name").Value
            ' Add code here for other bookmarks if needed
            End If
        End If
    Next bookmark

    ' Save the modified content to a new temporary Word document
    doc.SaveAs2 expoPath, Word.WdSaveFormat.wdFormatDocumentDefault
    doc.Close ' Close the original document

    ' Open the temporary document to work with it
    Set expoDoc = WordApp.Documents.Open(expoPath)
    If expoDoc Is Nothing Then
        MsgBox "The temporary document could not be opened."
        WordApp.Quit
        Set WordApp = Nothing
        Exit Sub
    End If
    
    ' Clean up the objects and close the Word application
    Set doc = Nothing
    WordApp.Quit
    Set WordApp = Nothing
    
    On Error GoTo 0 ' Reset error handling
End Sub```

Answer 1

• Updating text with bookmark.Range.Text = .. will remove bookmark
• It is necessary to re-create the bookmark after updating text.

    ' Update all bookmarks in the document    
    Dim bmRange As Range, bmName As String, i As Long
    For i = 1 To doc.Bookmarks.Count
        Set Bookmark = doc.Bookmarks(i)
        Set bmRange = Bookmark.Range
        If Not bmRange Is Nothing Then
            bmName = "project_name"
            If Bookmark.Name = bmName Then
                bmRange.Text = Range(bmName).Value
                ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Add bmName, bmRange
                ' Add code here for other bookmarks if needed
            End If
        End If
    Next i